Making Museum Websites Accessible
Jim Angus, National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke, USA
Jonathan Bowen, South Bank University, United Kingdom
http:// http://access.museophile.net/

Workshop: Making Websites Accessible

Learn how to meet the challenge of making your websites accessible to visitors with disabilities by using assessment tools, "testing" museum websites, and becoming aware of state-of-the-art resources and tools.

Physical disabled access is something that most museums consider very seriously. Indeed, there are normally legal requirements to do so. However, on-line disabled access is still a relatively novel field. Most museums have not yet considered the issues in depth. The Human-Computer Interface for their websites are normally tested with major browsers, but not with specialist browsers or against the relevant standards. This workshop will consider the current state of the art in this area, survey some current museum websites for accessibility, including the use of screen-readers with these sites, and gives suggestions for possible improvements.